Parliament speaker welcomes Portugal’s de Sousa

CAIRO – 12 April 2018: Speaker of the House of Representatives Ali Abdel Aal received on Thursday Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa who visits Cairo for three days.

The meeting was attended by secretary general of the House of Representatives Ahmed Saad Eddin and a number of MPs.

Earlier Thursday, the Portuguese met with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed el-Tayyeb to hold bilateral talks over cooperation and the role of Al Azhar in backing peace and peaceful coexistence worldwide.

The two sides reviewed Portugal's experiment in laying down foundations of coexistence and dialogue among different cultures and religions.

De Sousa arrived at Al Azhar headquarters accompanied by a high-level delegation.

The Portuguese president toured Al Azhar mosque then headed to Al Azhar University where he gave a lecture on East-West relations.

The Portuguese president arrived here on Wednesday on his first three-day visit to Egypt since assuming post in 2016. He met with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to discuss economic relations’ enhancement and international and regional issues of mutual concerns.

Several economic and trade agreements are expected to be signed between Egypt and Portugal during the visit, said Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) on Wednesday.

Both leaders attended on Thursday the signing of a cooperation protocol and a memo of understanding (MoU) between Egypt and Portugal.

The MoU was signed between Head of the General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone Mohab Mamish and Portugal's Aicep Global company chairman Francisco Mendes Palma.

Aicep Global is a government business entity that was established in 2007 to encourage the best foreign companies to invest in Portugal and contribute to the success of Portuguese companies abroad in their internationalization processes or export activities.

Also, the two leaders attended the singing of a cooperation protocol between Ain Shams University and Camoes languages institute.

The protocol was signed by President of Ain Shams University Abdel Wahab Ezzet and President of Porto University ‎Sebastião Feyo de Azevedo.